


Never Stop Running

by Rekall



Category: Halt and Catch Fire
Genre: Between Seasons, Character Study, F/M, Hope for the future, Lost Love, Mentions of Joe/Cameron, Mentions of Joe/Simon, Missing Scene, Running Away, Starting Over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 04:43:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5443718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rekall/pseuds/Rekall
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the truckload of Giant computers burn, Joe knows it's time to move on again. Weighting his options he knows he only has one choice if he wants to find happiness.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Never Stop Running

**Author's Note:**

  * For [virginie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/virginie/gifts).



A cold numbness went through Joe as he walked down the long, narrow, dark road. Around him there was nothing but farm fields, which was a good thing. He could still picture the fire in his mind, if he turned around he wondered if he would still be able to see the flames rising into the night sky. 

Then again, maybe not. He had walked a long way since driving out to the middle of nowhere and lit the truck on fire. It was a move he didn't regret. He tried telling them that the Giant wasn't ready, that out in California Apple was doing something with computers that never had been seen before. That was the future, Joe had seen it for himself at COMDEX, but they wouldn't listen to him, so Joe had done the only thing he could do.

In the long run they would thank him.

Not that Joe planned on sticking around to find out.

Joe knew he was running again. Running was the thing he did best when things didn't go his way. A part of Joe always hated himself when he ran. Normally it was a small and nagging thing in the back of his mind but right then it was affecting him more than ever.

He suspected it was Cameron's fault. She stormed into his life and affected him in more ways than he ever could imagine when they first met all those months ago in her classroom. There was still hurt there. He still loved her. Even though she had made it clear she never wanted to see him again. 

He knew the problem. He didn't love easily but when he did, he fell hard. 

There were three times in his life when he experienced love like no other. Cameron was the most recent. Before her had been Simon. Simon and him had been great together. Their time in Europe together was still a period that Joe looked fondly back on. But Joe always knew there was no future together with Simon. The world wasn't ready to accept their relationship, it might never be. Joe still remembered the way the kids had acted at school. The incident with his locker was one that he often still thought of. After all that was the first time he began to run.

Headlights on the road in front of him brought Joe's mind back to the present. He lifted his arm to block out the light all while wondering if it was a cop car. That would be bad. Joe did technically steal a shipment of computers and set it on fire, but at the same time he found himself not caring. 

The lights came to a stop next to Joe. Not a cop but rather a worn, beat-up pick-up truck. The driver was a man, wrinkled face and short cropped hair white with age. He looked at Joe with a concerned expression on his face. "What are you doing way out here? Something happened?"

"Car accident," Joe smoothly lied, wondering once again if the flames from the fire could be seen but not wanting to look. The smoke at least wouldn't be seen in the dark night. "Can I get ride into town?"

The man quickly agreed and introductions were exchanged with a handshake as the man identified himself as Tim, a local farmer, while Joe got into the truck. The inside was just as ratty as the outside, but Joe didn't care. Now that he was off his feet, he could feel how much they ached from walking such a distance in dress shoes. 

"Got a wife worried about you?" Tim asked in an attempt to make small talk as he drove.

"No," Joe quietly said as an image popped into his head of a short woman with wild brunette hair, dazzling smile and fun laugh.

The other person he had loved with his whole heart had been Sara. 

A pang of loneliness went through Joe as he thought about Sara. She had been his college sweetheart, his first love and at one point he thought they would be together forever. They had gone their separate ways after graduating though. For a while Joe had kept up on the ongoings of Sara's life. Her marriage had come as a shock to him and it had hurt more than Joe had expected. After that he had cut all news of Sara out of his life. 

"You need a hospital or something?" Tim asked, sensing that there was something wrong with Joe.

"No."

The small talk fell away after that, it was clear that Joe didn't want to talk. If Joe was lucky Tim would just assume it was because he was in shock from the supposed accident. If he was really lucky the man wouldn't follow up to find out the truth about what happened. Joe however was almost positive he wouldn't that lucky. Fortunately he had only given the man his first name. There had to be a lot of Joes in Texas who were tall and had brown hair, at least Joe hoped there was. 

Not that he had plans on staying around very long.

Joe had Tim drop him off in a strip mall. With a friendly smile, thanks and some small words of reassurance, Joe finally managed to make Tim drive off and hopefully head home instead of going to the police. Joe kept the smile on his face until the truck was out of sight and then all traces of it vanished from his face.

A phone booth was nearby which Joe used to call for a taxi to take him home. Fortunately unlike Tim the farmer, the taxi driver didn't care about his wellbeing. He simply drove in silence as Joe relaxed in the back seat with his eyes closed as his thoughts returned to Sara.

The fact he had heard about her divorce was a miracle. He had overheard gossip at an event that Jacob Wheeler's daughter was divorcing. They thought it was scandalous but Joe had been happy. Happier than he had been willing to admit. He had almost contacted her then but in the end changed his mind. He had been too scared and there wasn't a lot of things that scared Joe MacMillan.

But maybe it was time to stop being scared.

There was a jolt as the taxi came to a stop in front of Joe's apartment building. He quickly paid the man and didn't wait for the change as he exited the taxi. He just wanted to get out of there. He had things to do before anyone began questioning the whereabouts of the missing shipment of Giants.

As he unlocked the door to his apartment, Joe almost hoped that Cameron was there waiting for him. If she was, maybe he would change his mind or at the very least they could run away together and start a new life somewhere. Somewhere out in California where all the best were going to create the future.

Of course however Cameron wasn't there. 

But Joe wished she had been.

Moving through the apartment, Joe quickly found the things he was looking for buried in the back of a closet. They were items that he was pretty sure Cameron didn't even know about even though she had a habit of snooping around his place. Joe hadn't mind anytime she went through his things, her independence was one of the things he had liked about her the best. That and her free spirit.

It only took a few moments for Joe to have everything he needed. The camping gear was placed in a neat pile on the floor in the middle of his apartment. It was still packed from the last time he had gone camping, a hobby he knew that no one had known about. Everyone he knew likely would call him a liar if he told them he enjoyed camping. But no one had known the real him, not even Cameron who came the closest. 

A trip to the bank would be his first stop to withdraw the money he needed and then he would simply disappear. He knew what he was doing there, after all he had done it before. Last time he hadn't had a purpose. He had simply wandered around until he had ended up in Texas, ready to restart his life. This time however he did know where he was going.

Of his three loves, two were lost to him. Simon to the disease that was claiming his life and Cameron who no longer wanted to see and speak to him. 

That left Sara.

Joe wasn't sure what would happen when he found her. Maybe they would simply talk and go their separate ways again. But at one point in time Sara had known him better than anyone else, perhaps better than he even knew himself. If anyone could get him back on the right path it would be her. She was a chance at him being happy again.

The hardest part would be finding her.

But Joe was ready for that challenge.

It was time to go on an adventure.


End file.
